Books have been written on this issue, and the bickering and squabbling about where the "hot" one armed bandits are placed in the casino are still bubbling – sixty years after slot machine games were first installed in casinos.
The traditional rule is that the better slot machines were located just inside the main foyer of the casino; so that potential players passing by would see real jackpot winners … be titillated to come unto the gambling floor and play. Our leaning is that this is definitely no longer so.
Just about all of the mega casinos these days are herculean complexes … you can no longer see inside from the sidewalk, so there is no longer a reason to place the ‘loose’ slots in close proximity to any exits.
Another traditional rule is that loose one armed bandits are put on the major aisles inside the casinos, again so that more folks could see winning jackpots and be encouraged to play. Notably though, we find that this also is not a universal rule any more.
What casinos found over the years is that people walking down the busy aisles were frequently on the way to somewhere else. If they played one armed bandits at all, they would simply put in their loose change because they happened to be walking by. Win or lose, they would very often not stop to keep playing. And the very last thing a casino wants is for someone to win a jackpot by playing only a few coins and then not stay to put it all back in!
Nowadays, casinos are constantly changing their perspective about where to place the loose slots.